Crews Battle Fire on N.M. Reservation

Firefighters put out hot spots left by an 800-acre wildfire in Santa Fe National Forest as crews in western New Mexico battled an out-of-control blaze on a Navajo reservation.

The fire east of Santa Fe had forced 300 people to evacuate and engulfed hundreds of acres in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Firefighters had it 70% contained Thursday, and residents were being allowed back into their homes, fire officials said.

“The winds were really gusting and eddying around the canyon, but the lines withstood everything the winds threw at us,” fire information officer Jim Whittington said.

No homes burned and no fire-related injuries were reported. Investigators want to question two men seen jumping into a sport-utility vehicle near where the fire started.

The outlook was not as good Thursday for a fire in the Chuska Mountains that had charred more than 650 acres on the Navajo reservation about 30 miles south of Shiprock.

Fire information officer Chadeen Palmer said the fire exploded from 40 acres to 500 acres in two hours Tuesday, and shifting winds helped it grow Wednesday.

“There has been a lot of spotting and flaring,” she said.

Several families in Toadlena, on the Navajo reservation, evacuated their homes because of the smoke. Seventeen families and 25 students from a boarding school in the area had been evacuated Tuesday.

Although the community was not immediately threatened, firefighters feared that winds could drive flames through the area. Firefighters also were trying to protect the tribe’s fish hatchery watershed.

The fire flared from a campfire Monday, said fire information officer Calvin Becenti. He said charges were pending against the person who started the campfire.

In southern New Mexico, a 15,400-acre forest fire in the Sacramento Mountains was contained Thursday. The fire had been accidentally started April 30 by a man who later committed suicide, authorities said.

Another fire, which burned 200 acres near Conifer, Colo., and chased about 2,400 people from their homes, was contained Wednesday evening.

Five boys and a 14-year-old girl have been charged in Colorado in connection with three separate wildfires that forced thousands of people to flee over the last two weeks.